"Definitions" of Folk, Popular, and Art Music

from http://www.geocities.com/vienna/opera/9223/definitions.htm

• Music in Brazil is usually divided in three categories: música folklórica (Folk music), música popular Brasilera or MPB (Popular Brazilian music), and música erudita o música de escola (art music). These terms are generally accepted as implying specific musical styles and social functions. In 1954, there was an International Congress of Folklore, which met in São Paulo. One of the questions on the agenda was the distinction between folk and popular music. Folk music was defined as "that music which being used anonymously and collectively by the unlettered classes of a civilized society, originates also from anonymous and collective creation from the group, or from the adoption and accommodation of popular works that have lost their vital functions in the source from which they originated.(2)" Popular music was defined by the same congress as "that music, which being composed by known authorship, is disseminated and used, with less or more frequency by all levels of the collective group."

A useful description of folk music may be found at http://www.coe.ufl.edu/courses/EdTech/Vault/Folk/Definition.htm.

1. Division of music into folk, art, and pop categories based on “ethnocentric value judgments” is inaccurate, misleading, and inadequate.
   1. Musicians and Scholars have been left with a problematic terminology – labels exist but have no theoretical basis (serious, popular, art, primitive, classical, folk, etc.)
   2. Some scholars avoid the terms, focusing instead on “idioms.”
   3. The labels, however - particularly folk, art, and pop - do identify (at least as ideal types) fairly discrete musical functions and content.
   4. Cultural economic and transmission support systems are the primary determinants for identifying the distinctive features of these categories as well as describing the limits of what is possible within that category.
2. Folk Music
   1. Music that meets the approval of the group is more likely to survive, and music is often tied to social occasions.
   2. Transmission of the music is indirect or even incidental.
   3. Text is emphasized.
   4. No “professional” musicians.
   5. Oral transmission of music.
3. Art music
   1. Art music requires a concentration of non-subsistence income to support a relatively small number of “professional” or specialist musicians.
   2. Direct patronage by individuals or institutions both expands and limits what is possible.
   3. Extended, formal performances that focus on an individual's creative output are common.
   4. Extensive training is available (and perhaps required) for music specialists.
   5. Patrons absorb the music through self- and class-selected listening.
4. Popular Music
   1. Indirect patronage by a mass audience.
   2. A means must exist of collecting audience in a single space or disseminating performance through recording or broadcast.
   3. Availability of technology as a means of transmission extends and limits what is possible. “Owners” or providers of the technology mediate the flow of the music and income. Economic factors play a major role in this relationship.
   4. Musicians are specialists or professionals.

Return to the American Popular Music Class Notes Page